AUSTIN, Texas _ In an unusual protest of a Texas bill filed by abortion opponents, four Democratic lawmakers did not show up to a committee hearing on Monday, calling the measure "political grandstanding" and temporarily derailing it because the committee did not have a quorum to meet.
House Bill 16, scheduled for a hearing in the Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence, would require medical treatment for children born alive after an abortion.
But with the four Democrats a no-show in a sign of protest, and one Republican absent from the nine-member committee because of travel issues related to parenting obligations, the committee initially had no quorum to hold a hearing on the bill and never gaveled in.
By Monday afternoon, with the final Republican member of the committee having reached the Capitol _ Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-Dallas, said he had to take a later flight to Austin because his wife was out of town and he had to make sure their kids got to school _ the committee came to order and took testimony on the bill.
Abortion rights advocates said the bill addresses a nonexistent problem in an attempt to worsen an already hostile environment for abortion doctors in Texas.
A statement by the four Democratic lawmakers, Reps. Victoria Neave, D-Dallas, Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas, Julie Johnson, D-Carrollton, and Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, released Monday morning said they were "surprised" the committee had not held a hearing, given its majority.
"While some members of the Texas Legislature insist on attacking as well as offending women directly and indirectly, we will not join this charade by participating in this political grandstanding on issues which are already codified in Texas and federal law," they wrote. "We refuse to offend our fellow Texas women, their families, and licensed physicians by wasting time on unnecessary legislation designed to intimidate and restrict women's access to health care. Our time and the taxpayers' money are much too important for this trivial approach to governing."
Attacks on women and abortion providers has been "incessant," said Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, chairman of the House Democratic caucus, adding that he wasn't consulted before the women boycotted the hearing.
"They just decided enough was enough and they weren't going to participate," he told the American-Statesman.
State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, who chairs the committee, called his bill a "line in the sand" for lawmakers.
"The Texas Legislature cannot and will not remain silent," he said in early March at a Capitol news conference. "A baby who survives an abortion deserves the full protection of the law and the highest standards of medical care."
Texas Born-Alive Infant Protection Act was filed in response to a law passed in New York, and a bill proposed in Virginia, to loosen standards for late-term abortions.
New York's law, passed in January, allows abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy if a health care professional determines that the woman's health or life were at risk, or if the fetus could not survive after birth. Opponents, including President Donald Trump, argued that the law goes too far, legalizing abortion until the moment of birth, though supporters dispute the claim.
Soon after, a Virginia bill to make third-trimester abortions more accessible when a woman's health is in danger sparked a national backlash when its sponsor, Democratic Delegate Kathy Tran, said a woman who was dilating prior to birth could request an abortion if a doctor determined that her mental or physical health was at risk. The legislation did not advance.
The Texas bill would require an abortion doctor to "exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child" that would be given "to any other child born alive at the same gestational age."
Doctors who violate the proposed law could be sued by the Texas attorney general to collect a civil penalty of "not less than $100,000."
Abbott has said he supports Leach's proposal.
"The growing support for infanticide demonstrates a monstrous disregard for basic human dignity, and it is vital that we take a stand on behalf of unborn children and abortion survivors in the state of Texas," Abbott said earlier this month.
Abortion rights advocates say such live births don't happen, particularly in Texas, where abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy _ before a fetus is viable _ have been banned since October 2013 unless a woman's life is threatened or in cases of severe fetal abnormality. Furthermore, current law wouldn't allow anyone to end the life of a conceived baby.
NARAL Pro-Choice Texas Executive Director Aimee Arrambide said the bills were part of a national strategy to ban access to all abortions.
Leach's bill was left pending on Monday.
